Cap lifting machine



Sept. 1, 1953 E. c. BENNETT ETAL 2,650,743

CAP LIFTING MACHINE Filed May 19, 1947 FNVENTOR EwREw c. BENNETT CHARLESPOWEL Patented Sept. 1, 1953 CAP LIFTING MACHINE Eldred 0. Bennett andCharles Powell, Detroit, Mich., assignors to Sterling Drug Inc., NewYork, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application May 19, 1947, SerialNo. 748,990

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a cap lifting machine whereby a loosely fittedcover may be automatically removed from a container while said containeris being transported by a conveyor.

In handling many chemicals, foods and pharmaceuticals, it is of primeimportance to maintain the most sanitary conditions possible. Suchsanitary conditions require the elimination of every possible humancontact and its resultant contamination wherever practicable. According-1y, it is customary in commercial practice, where said materials must beplaced in suitable containers, such as glass bottles, to sterilize saidbottles, which are covered with convenient, slidably fitting caps.Often, however, this said sterilization operation is of limited valuebecause said caps are usually removed manually at a point immediatelyahead of the filling station thereby exposing not only the containers,but also the filling apparatus, to contamination by the operator who isremoving said caps.

Persons acquainted with container filling apparatus will recognize atonce the desirability for having a completely automatic cap liftingmachine which can be synchronized to cooperate with conveyor means andparticularly with an endless belt type of conveyor.

Consequently, a major object of this invention is to provide a caplifting machine which will automatically remove loosely fitted coversfrom over the mouths of containers.

A further object of this invention is to provide a cap lifting machineas aforesaid Whose operation can be readily synchronized with that of anendless belt type of conveyor system.

A further object of this invention is to provide a cap lifting machineas aforesaid whereby contamination of sterilized containers ispositively prevented prior to the operation in which said containers arefilled.

Other objects and purposes of this invention will become apparent topersons familiar with this type of equipment upon referring to theaccompanying drawings and upon reading the following specifications.

In order to meet those objects and purposes .set forth above as well asothers incidental thereto and associated therewith, I have provided acap lifting machine comprising a longitudinally split, two part bodymember which is spaced from and held at an inclination with respect to asupporting platform.

Said supporting platform preferably includes a conveyor means for thepurpose-of transporting the containers with loosely fitting covers overtheir mouths.

Said caplifting machine is so positioned with respect to said conveyorthat the containers carried thereon are obliged to pass between thelower ends of the said two portions of said inclined body member,whereupon said covers are engaged by a pair of laterally opposed,lifting belts, one supported in each portion of said body member. Thespeed of movement of said lifting belts is controlled so that thehorizontal component thereof is equal to the movement of the conveyor.

A chute may be associated with the high end of said inclined, two partbody member into which said covers are automatically dropped when theopposed lifting belts reach their turning points at the said high end ofthe body member.

Construction For one preferred, but by no means the only, embodiment ofthe invention herein described, attention is directed to the drawings inwhich:

Figure 1 is a side elevation view of the cap lifting machine to whichthis invention relates.

Figure 2 is a top plan, partially broken view of said cap liftingmachine, showing the operating gears in phantom.

Figure 3 is an end view of said cap lifting device.

Figure 4 is a cross sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of Figure2.

For convenience in the hereinafter following description, directions andparts of the apparatus will be referred to as upper and lower. This willassume the apparatus to be positioned in its normal condition of use.The terms outward and "centerward will also be used and these will referto directions away from and toward the geometric center of the machine.These terms are intended for purposes of convenience in reference andare not limting.

The body member to of the preferred embodiment of said cap liftingmachine illustrated in Figure 1 may be held in an angular dispositionwith respect to any suitable conventional conveyor means, such as thebelt II, by means of the support rods If in a manner hereinafterdescribed in detail. As shown in Figure 2, said body member H1 iscomprised of a pair of substantially similar and parallel channelmembers which shall hereinafter be referred to as the driven sidechannel member is and drive side channel member [4. Said channel membersmay be adjustably held and spaced as desired with respect to each otherin any convenient, conventional and suitable manner such as, forexample, by means of the adjusting bar I5 and the base plate It.

Said adjusting bar I5 may be secured adjacent to its one extremity tothe top flange I! of the said drive side channel member is near to thelower end thereof in any suitable manner such as welding, riveting orbolting. A slotted opening [8, longitudinally disposed with respect tosaid adjusting bar 15, is provided adjacent to the other extremitythereof for slidable association with an adjusting bolt I9 which issecured to the top flange 23 of the driven side channel member if nearto the lower end thereof.

The said base plate l6 may preferably, but not necessarily, be providedwith slotted bolt holes, not shown, by means of which said base plate isadjustably secured to the bottom flanges 25 and 26 of the said channelmembers [3 and I4, respectively. Said base plate may be as long or asshort as required to provide adequate strength, and for other purposeshereinafter disclosed.

A driven pulley wheel 21 of any conventional type is afiixed to androtatable with a driven pulley shaft 28 which extends between andthroughout the longitudinally slotted openings 29 in the said top andbottom flanges ll and 25, respectively, of the drive side channel memberi4, adjacent to the upper end thereof. Said pulley shaft 28 is rotatablysupported at its extremities within the bearings 36 which are adjustablysecured to said top and bottom flanges I1 and 26.

A driving pulley wheel 3 I, preferably identical with said pulley wheel22', is aihxed to and rotatable with a driving pulley shaft 32 whichextends through and is rotatably supported within suitable openings inthe said top and bottom flanges Ill, and 25, respectively, of the driveside channel member [4, and adjacent to the lower ends thereof. Theupper extremity of said driving pulley shaft 32 extends through the topflange ll of said drive side channel I4 so that it may be properlyengaged by and rotatable with a primary driven gear 33 whose functionwill be disclosed hereinafter.

Said driven pulley 21 and said driving pulley 3! are mutually andoperably engaged by a 1ifting belt 34 which may be made of any suitablematerial such as reinforced, soft rubber. The said pulley shafts 23 and32 are so positioned with respect to the free edges 35 of the flanges I!and 25 of the said drive side channel member 14 that a space 31 isprovided between the inside surface 3'6 of that portion of said liftingbelt 34, lying outside of the drive side channel member, and a planedefined by said free edges 35 of the said flanges I? and 25.

In this particular embodiment of the invention, and as illustrated inFigures 2 and 4, the

said space 31 is sufficient to permit the insertion of an appropriateguide member 38, herein shown as a U-shaped piece of sheet metal, whichpreferably fits over the open side of said drive side channel member [4between said pulley wheels 2'! and 2-! and is of such length andstrength as may be required for purposes hereinafter disclosed indetail.

The said guide member 38 may be adjustably and removably secured to saidtop flange I! by means such as screws 39, and is adjustably securedbetween said bottom flange 26 and the base plate [6 by means of thebolts attaching said base plate 13 to said bottom flange 25.

The above description, although referring specifically to theconstruction of the drive side portion 44 of the said body member I!)which is supported upon the drive side channel member I4, applies insubstance to the driven side portion 45 of the said body member II)which is supported upon the driven side channel member l3, and the saidportions 44 and 45 are substantially mirror images of each other.

Therefore, it may be briefly stated that a driven shaft 46 and drivingshaft 4'! rotatable with and secured to a pair of pulley wheels 48 and49, re-

.4 spectively, which are preferably identical to the said pulley wheels21 and 3|, are rotatable within and extend through suitable openings inthe said .flanges 20 and 25 of the said driven side channel members [3,one adjacent to each end thereof. As aforesaid with respect to the saiddrive side portion 44, the upper pulley shaft 43 is adjustablelongitudinally of said driven side channel member l3 and rotatablysupported within a pair of adjustable bearings 50, whereas the lowerpulley shaft 47 extends through the top flange 20 for proper engagementby and rotation with a secondary driven gear 5|.

Said pulley wheels 48 and 49 are mutually engaged by a lifting belt 52,preferably identical with the first named lifting belt 34, in suchmanner that a space 53, approximately equivalent to the space 31, isprovided between the said lifting belt 52 and the edges of the flanges20 and 25. The U-shaped, sheet metal guide member 54 is advantageouslyidentical to the guide member 38 and lies between its respective liftingbelt 52 and the edges of the driven side channel member E3 in a mannersimilar thereto. Said guide member 54 may be secured to said channelmember E3 in the same manner as said guide member 38 is secured to saidchannel member 14.

For the purposes of the particular embodiment of the invention to whichthis description relates, the mutually engaged primary and secondarydriven gears 33 and 5|, respectively, are identical in diameter,conventional in structure and selectable in size so that the distancebetween the longitudinally opposed, substantially parallel portions ofthe lifting belts 34 and 52 may be varied as desired by appropriatechoice of gear size.

A drive shaft bracket 51, which may be a portion of a structural channelas illustrated in Figure 3, is provided with suitable openings in itsupper and lower flanges for rotatable support of the upper drive shaftsection 58 and is adjustably secured to the web side of the drive sidechannel member l4 near the lower end thereof in any suitable manner,such as by bolting. A conventional drive gear 59, which may be similarin diameter to said driven gears 33 and 5%, is secured to and rotatablewith the upper extremity of the upper drive shaft section 53 so thatsaid drive gear operably engages said primary driven gear 33. Said upperdrive shaft section 58 may be associated, by means of any conventional,con venient universal joint 60, with a lower drive shaft section 6|which may in turn be driven by any suitable means, not shown, such as anelectric motor.

A pair of suitable support brackets 62, appearing in Figure 1 as steelblocks, are attached to said web side of said drive side channel memberI4 in any suitable manner, such as by bolting or welding, and providedwith vertical openings for slidable reception of, and adjustablesecurement to, said support rods l2. Said support rods 12 may beanchored to an appropriate base, such as the counter 63 which flanks thelongitudinal edges of said conveyor belt II, by means of any convenient,conventional, metal post lock connections 64.

The body member I0 of said cap lifting machine is preferably, but notnecessarily, equipped with a discharge chute 65, which may be fabricatedfrom any appropriate material, such as sheet metal, and which may be ofany size, length or shape depending upon the particular application ofthe cap lifting machine. Preferably, and as viewed in Figures 1 and oneextremity of assume said chute 6.5 is removably secured, as by bolting,beneath the upper end of said bod-y member to for reception of saidcovers as they are released by the moving belts 34 and 52. Additionalsupport means such as the support arm 5'6, adj.ustably secured to asupport rod I25, may be provided as desired to steady the lower portionof said dis.- charge chute 65.

An end piece 66, which may be fabricated from suitable material, such assheet metal, and which may be secured to said drive side channel memberM by means such as a screw 51:, advantageously extends across the upperopen ends of said channel members t3: and i4; thereby enclosing them.

For illustrative purposes only, said conveyor elt l l is shown assupported by a conveyor belt ed as which extends between and may beinte- -.ral with, or secured to, said flanking counters 63. S conveyorbelt H is also illustratively shown as conveying a plurality oi bottles69 individually covered by sanitary caps 10, between guiderails ll.

fhe lower edge of said base plate l6 terminates at such a point spacedfrom a line connectinglthe centers of the lower pulleys 3'! and 49 thatat a normal angle of operation, such as 30 with respect to thehorizontal, bottles with their caps removed will pass under said edgewithout interference with same. The upper edge of said base member Heterminates at a point spaced slightly downwardly from the lineconnecting the centers of the uppermost pulleys 21 and 4-8 but onlysufficiently so that caps being dropped at and beyond line will notstrike said base plate. Said e plate is, however, as long as possiblewithin limits of permitting the bottles to pass under p lss the upperedge thereof in order to minimize the possibility of dirt falling intothe uncapped bottles as pointed out hereinafter.

Adjustments body member ID must first be adjusted to such height abovethe conveyor belt II that the caps in of the bottles 69 will be engagedby and between the two lifting belts 34 and 52 at a point with respectto said body member 40 approximately between said driving pulleys 3i and49.

When such height adjustment is made and said 'nember H) is inclined at anormal slope of a 30 degrees to the horizontal, the bottles, theirhaving been removed, will pass under the lower edge of said base plate16 without inter ierence.

The drive side portion 44 and driven side portion :35 are then laterallyadjusted with respect to each other by means of the adjusting bar l5 andthe base plate It so that the adjacent parallel portions of the belts 34and 52 will be correctly spaced from each other throughout their leng isfor positive and sustained engagement of said caps ill.

The said lifting belts 34 and 52 are maintained at the proper tension byadjusting the driven pulleys 2'! and t8 and their respective shafts 28and 28, longitudinally with respect to said body member it within theslotted openings 29, and by means of the adjustable bearings 30 and 50.

Said guide members 38 and 54 are adjusted, laterally with respect to thechannel members 14 =nd l3, respectively, so that they slidably engage,nd provide back support for, the inside surfaces the belts 3t and 52without impeding them during their normal movement.

Since the body member H3? is inclined to the conveyor bed, suitableadjustment, must, be made in the speed of said belts 34 and 52 wherebythe horizontal component thereof will be substantiallyequal to the speedof the conveyor belt ll. Such relative equality in the horizontal speedsis necessary becausethecap H3 is engaged both by the neck of the bottleand by the belts 3d and 52 of the cap lifting machine during. anappreciable period of time in the cap removing operation.

The speeds of each of the lifting belts and 52 will be identical whichmay be accomplished by selecting the gears 33. and 5'! with identicaldiameters and the same number of teeth.

Operation In operation, the sterilized containers, herein referred toiliustrativel-y as bottles iii), covered with sterile, loosely fittingcaps it, are fed by said conventional conveyor belt it towards said caplifting machine. The manner in which said bottles are sterilized and/orplaced upon said conveyor belt H is of no consequence insofar as thisinvention is concerned and, therefore, will not. be described.

Said drive gear which is driven through the driveshaft sections 5.8 andiii in any convenient manner engages and drives said primary driven gear33, which gear inturn engages and drives said secondary driven gear 5E.The pair of driving pulleys 3! and d9. rotatable with said primarydriven gear 33 and secondary driven gear 5|, respectively, actuate thesaid lifting belts t t and respectively.

When a bottle as reaches the point where its neck passes between thedrive pulleys 3i and d?! in the lower end of said body member iii, asillus trated in Figure 2, the cap it is gripped by the opposing belts 3dand As the conveyor belt continues to transport said bottle in arightwardly direction, as appearing in Figure 1 said cap is graduallylifted from said bottle neck. Said bottle is then conveyed to the nextstation on the conveyor system which, for example, may be a bottlefillin station.

Each cap is thus removed from each bottle, as it passes between thelower ends of the two portions M and d5 of said body member Ii Said capsare carried by said belts to the upper end of said body member is where,upon the turning of said belts away from each other, the caps arereleased and dropped into the said discharge chute 65 providedtherefore.

It will be observed that the guide members 3 3 and 54, by preventing thebelts 3d and 52, respectively, from being deflected laterally away fromeach other by the caps Ell which they are convey ing, provide additionalassurance that said caps Iii will be positively engaged by said liftingbelts 34 and 52.

It will be apparent that the base plate iii not only provides means forlateral adjustment between said drive side portion M and driven sideportion 45 but also catches particles of foreign matter which may bedisturbed by the moving parts of the body member is or might be rubbedoff the belts by the caps, and which might otherwise fall into the openbottles.

Although the above mentioned drawings and description apply to oneparticular preferred embodiment of the invention, it is not myintention, implied or otherwise, to eliminate other variations ormodifications which do not depart from the scope of the invention unlessspecifically stated to the contrary in the hereinafter appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a device for removing caps from bottles moving in single file, thecombination comprising: an elongated base plate; a pair of U-shapedchannel members affixed on the opposite longitudinal edges of said baseplate with the open .sides of said U-sections respectively facing eachother; a pair of pulleys within each of said U- shaped channel membersarranged in a common plane parallel to said base plate and a belt aroundeach of said pairs of pulleys, and each of said pulleys so positionedwith respect to the free edges of the flanges of said U-shaped membersthat said belts will each extend slightly beyond said respective freeedges; means rendering one of said U-shaped channel members adjustabletoward and away from the other U-shaped member; gear means driving saidpulleys so that adjacent courses of said belts travel in a commondirection and at the same speed with respect to each other; meansadaptable for mounting said device adjacent said row of bottles and forsupporting same directly over said bottles and at a substantial angle ina vertical plane with re spect to the horizontal one end of said devicebeing positioned adjacent the upper ends of said bottles and the otherend of said device being positioned substantially higher than said oneend and one of said pulleys Within each U-shaped channel member beingpositioned adjacent said other end of said device; said base plateterminating at said other end of said device at a point intermediate thecenterward half of said last named pulleys and a chute positionedunderneath and between said last named pulleys for catching anddeliverin to other means caps reaching the end of said belts anddropping between said U-shaped channel members.

2. The device defined in claim 1 wherein there is provided also afurther pair of U-shaped guide members oppositely facing with respect toeach other and respectively embracing the flanges of each of saidU-shaped channel members, the web of said U-shaped guide members beingpositioned between each of said respective pairs of pulleys and underthe portion of each belt extending therebetween, whereby to provide apositive backing for the adjacent courses of said belts.

ELDRED C. BENNETT. CHARLES POWELL.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,086,631 Weaver Feb. 10, 1914 1,119,204 Van Houten Dec. 1,1914 1,600,383 Ahlskog Sept. 21, 1926 1,811,201 Kleinberg June 23, 19311,907,900 Tevander May 9, 1933 2,187,101 Schneider Jan. 10, 19402,379,090 Le Beau June 26, 1945 2,380,193 Scott July 10, 1945 2,421,515McNamara et a1. June 3, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 489,457Great Britain July 27, 1938

